Soderberg's peace efforts in 1990s Belfast show she can get results

By Penn Rhodeen

Guest Columnist|

Oct 31, 2018 | 4:40 PM

Nancy Soderberg, 59, a former ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser under President Bill Clinton. Soderberg is the director of the Public Service Leadership Program at the University of North Florida.

Sixth District congressional candidate Nancy Soderberg’s remarkable achievement in running neck and neck in a district that Republicans carried by 17 points in 2016 suggests that an unusual number of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are seriously considering voting for her.

Fair questions such voters might have are whether, when elected, she would be open to ideas and concerns that are not typically associated with Democrats, and whether she would be willing to work with Republicans to achieve objectives beneficial to the district. Because I’ve written a book about the important role Americans played in ending the horrific warfare that plagued Ireland for centuries — and because Soderberg was central to the success of the peace process — I can offer an example of her willingness to listen to and work with those with different affiliations and views in order to get the right things done.

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In 1992 she was hired in midcampaign to serve as Bill Clinton’s foreign policy adviser. An issue that emerged before she came on board was whether American policy toward the brutal conflict in Northern Ireland should be changed from the longstanding policy of accepting the British position that the U.S. shouldn’t get involved in peacemaking efforts, despite the urging of many influential Irish Americans. By the time she arrived, Clinton had already promised to change the old policy. She didn’t think his promises were wise and candidly said so to former Congressman Bruce Morrison, architect of the political strategy to change American policy.

But despite their different viewpoints, she was willing to listen with respect and engagement to the arguments of Morrison and others that by changing the old policy, the United States could play a constructive and potentially decisive role in helping Northern Ireland start resolving conflicts through political process rather than violence and warfare.

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Penn Rhodeen, a lawyer who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., is the author of Peacerunner, a true story of how Americans helped end the centuries of warfare in Ireland. (Courtesy photo)

Considering Morrison’s views meant she had to reconsider the views of leaders from Northern Ireland with whom she disagreed but — in her position as campaign adviser and, after Clinton won, deputy national security adviser — she was always willing to listen. Ultimately, she came to believe that the course Morrison and others recommended was the best way for the U.S. to help end the bloodshed.

Once Soderberg came to feel that a new American policy was needed, she became one of its bravest, most steadfast and extraordinarily effective champions. Her eyes never left the prize of freeing Ireland from the old grip of violence and warfare. When renewed violence threatened to wreck the peace process, she never wavered. She remembered looking out on the sea of hopeful faces in Belfast at the Christmas tree lighting on Clinton’s visit to Belfast during the ceasefire the new American policy helped produce, and she knew the U.S. had to hold course: “People just so wanted it, and the people were so far ahead of the politicians. The people who opposed us doing this in the first place would say, ‘OK, now you’ve got to cut these guys off.’ But honestly we never seriously considered it, because you don’t want those who are trying to destroy the peace process to win.”

Thanks in considerable part to Soderberg’s willingness to listen with respect to a different point of view and to take action, the peace process wasn’t destroyed. It succeeded spectacularly with the historic 1998 Good Friday peace agreement reached after marathon negotiations in Belfast between groups that had never been able to speak to each other.

Based on her record of performance and accomplishment, District 6 voters can feel confident that in Nancy Soderberg they will have a leader with demonstrated capability and strength, but also with the humility to know that no one side has a monopoly on good ideas and legitimate concerns. She will be a leader confident and smart enough to listen with respect to different perspectives and to work across the aisle to get the best things done.

Penn Rhodeen, a lawyer and writer who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., is the author of “Peacerunner,” a true story of how Americans helped end the centuries of warfare in Ireland.